Audi continues to bait Porsche with indications of a mid-engined Boxster rival, but will the Zuffenhausen-based company put up with such a challenge?
According to a number of company sources, Audi is developing a small sports car dubbed the R4 to take on the Porsche Boxster. The project is still in a stage of infancy and in terms of appearances all we have to go on is the artist rendering shown right.
If given the green light, the R4 could arrive in showrooms in 2010 as a mid-engined, two-seater sports car and it has been speculated that Volkswagen Group’s Spanish brand, Seat, may also receive a similar vehicle. Local Audi aficionados were recently treated to the introduction of the Audi TT, and can look forward to the R8 supercar’s arrival later this year – if that trend of continues, the ever-diversifying new generation of Audi sports cars are sure to follow.
If launched, the R4 could potentially rock the bullish new ownership structure at Volkswagen. Although the new Volkswagen Group chairman, Martin Winterkorn, is the former head of Audi, the could well be venturing into Porsche’s turf with this vehicle and one has to question the wisdom of treading on the toes of a company with a near-controlling interest in Audi’s parent company, the Volkswagen Group.
It has become apparent that Audi’s recent foray into the sports car realm with the 911-rivalling R8 has made a number of the company’s officials rather nervous. At the Detroit Show last month, an Audi executive commented that he and his peers were concerned how far the company could go in competing with Porsche.
Head of product marketing for Audi, Jens Meier, is more confident in the new direction the company is taking. “We will be a new competitor in the segment where the 911 sits,” Meier told , “Our goal is to get some volume from our competitors.”
The Ingolstadt-based firm plans to build 4 000 units of the R8 and as many as 30 000 units of the R4 annually. In the last 11 months, 18 889 Porsche 911s were sold in Europe.
Porsche has designs on increasing its already significant influence within the Volkswagen Group and industry observers are questioning what effect the Porsche-VW ownership structure would have of Audi sales. The Stuttgart company recently became the largest shareholder in the Volkswagen Group having increased its stake to 27,4 per cent and company chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking wished to add another seat to the two Porsche already has on the VW advisory board.
At present Audi is cagey regarding it’s plans to build the R4, but Meier has suggested that this car could potentially fill in the gaps between the TT and Lamborghini.
Of the potential competition, Porsche spokesman Stephan Marschall remarked, “We welcome competition and we are confident that Porsche will fare well in comparison.”
It will be interesting to see whether the R4 becomes a production reality or another victim of the Porsche boardroom juggernaut.
